Fund/Build/Scale

Walter Thompson

After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:

1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.
2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge.
3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it.

There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder.

Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale:

1. To help founders make fewer mistakes.
2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey.
3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out.

This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business.

I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it.

Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.

Fund/Build/Scale is a production of Truth and Soul Media LLC.

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S2 · E121
Sunday · 44 min
Do the Work Before You Start the Clock
Before you raise money, hire a team or start building, how much should you already know? Vineet Edupuganti, co-founder and CEO of Cogent Security, joins Fund/Build/Scale to break down the work his team did before committing to the company: talking with roughly 100 potential customers, studying previous attempts to solve the problem, mapping buyer pain and budgets, and identifying the assumptions that could derail the business. We also talk how Cogent recruited its first employees, landed early design partners, decided when customer interest was strong enough to move forward, and learned to distinguish real demand from polite enthusiasm. If you’re not sure how to recognize when it’s time to stop researching and start building, listen to this episode. 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xVOcBgsuU2U RUNTIME 44:19 (2:02) Pick a Problem That Survives an 80% Budget Cut (9:11) Build Conviction Before You Build the Company (19:28) How to Recognize When You’ve Learned Enough to Start (27:52) Why Early Customers Take the Risk (34:23) The Signals That Demand Is Real (38:41) Would You Invest $1 Million in Yourself? LINKS Vineet Edupuganti Cogent Security Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E120
October 19 · 35 min
Why Some Startups Get Taken Seriously and Others Don't
Why do some startups get taken seriously while others struggle to earn attention, even when they're solving similar problems? Beck Bamberger, founder and CEO of startup communications agency BAM, joins Fund/Build/Scale to discuss how early-stage founders establish credibility before they have much traction. We explore why conviction matters but can't substitute for evidence, what investors look for when customers and revenue are scarce, and why founders who've raised millions sometimes struggle to explain what their companies actually do. Beck also explains the concept of narrative capital, how investors, customers and journalists evaluate startups differently, and what founders can do to earn trust and media attention without an established track record. A practical conversation about confidence, customer validation, clear communication and giving people real reasons to believe in your business. WATCH ON YOUTUBE https://youtu.be/yqdmd7S7jR4 RUNTIME 35:29 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:50) Meet Beck Bamberger, Founder and CEO of BAM (4:36) Why Some Founders Earn Belief Before Proof (10:50) What Makes an Early-Stage Startup Credible? (18:45) Your Startup Story Shouldn’t Take 17 Minutes (24:35) Who Needs to Believe in Your Startup First? (28:08) How to Get Journalists to Take You Seriously (31:01) Practical Advice for Building Startup Credibility LINKS Beck Bamberger, PhD BAM Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/
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S2 · E119
October 6 · 37 min
How Much Proof Does a Consumer Startup Need to Raise Money?
“Follow your dreams and quit your day job” is terrible advice. That’s not me saying it. That’s Jon Keidan, founder and managing partner of Torch Capital, where he’s backed companies including Sweetgreen, Acorns and Zocdoc. He has a better suggestion: before you blow up your life for a startup idea, find some proof that people actually want what you’re planning to build. The bar may be lower than you think. In this conversation, we break down how Jon evaluates consumer startups from the pain point up, what makes founders credible before there’s much traction, why he initially passed (twice!) on Sweetgreen, and how to tell the difference between focus and distraction. We end with a 30-day experiment you can run while you still have a paycheck to find out whether strangers care about your idea before you go all in. 📺 WATCH ON YOUTUBE https://youtu.be/1VvBiLhvd_g RUNTIME 37:14 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:39) Is the problem painful enough to build a company around? (7:01) Start with a niche, but think bigger (19:02) Don't quit your day job just yet (24:17) The deli test: How to tell if your consumer product is venture-scale (26:57) How much proof does a pre-seed investor need? (28:43) AI is not a business model (32:09) Where are the opportunities AI hasn't swallowed? (35:04) Jon's 30-day experiment for consumer/CPG founders LINKS Jon Keidan Torch Capital Sweetgreen Acorns Zocdoc DigitalOcean Ro Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E118
October 2 · 49 min
What You Permit Is What Gets Produced
Most of us learn culture by adapting to one that already exists. We join a company, figure out what gets rewarded, who has power, what people say in meetings, and what they say after the meeting ends. Founders don’t have that luxury. They’re not fitting into a culture. They’re creating one, whether they mean to or not. SnapLogic President Molly Matthews has a more practical way to think about it: culture is what gets repeated. It shows up in who you hire, what you build, and how you treat customers. “For me, it’s the ethos,” she said. “It’s the energy in which you exchange details with colleagues. It’s how you show up to work.” We get into the first five hires, why “culture fit” is often the wrong frame, what to do with the talented-but-toxic employee, and we’ll end with a self-diagnostic you can run to see if your company is becoming the kind of place you meant to build. 📺 Watch this episode on YouTube RUNTIME 49:56 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:58) Molly Matthews on scaling through people (4:29) What company culture actually means (19:09) Why waiting for the perfect hire backfires (26:56) When grit turns into burnout (32:06) The Captain America problem: when talent hurts the team (38:37) Morale and culture are different problems (40:14) Choosing advisors and investors (44:47) What to look for in your first five hires LINKS Molly Matthews SnapLogic Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth Radical Candor, Kim Scott Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E117
October 1 · 39 min
How VCs Judge Founders With No Track Record
What makes a startup worth backing if it has no product, revenue or meaningful traction to evaluate? Paige Craig, founder and managing partner of Outlander VC, invests at the idea stage, which means much of his job involves assessing founders before the usual signals exist. In this episode, Paige explains what he looks for instead: obsession with the problem, time spent with prospective customers, learning velocity, judgment, character and the ability to execute under uncertainty. We also get tactical about what founders can do before they have a product. Paige explains how to distinguish polite customer interest from an actual commitment, what early execution should look like, how to tell whether an idea has venture-scale potential, and how co-founders can pressure-test whether they’re actually working well together. If you’re still figuring out whether you have a startup, a venture-backable business, or just an interesting idea, this conversation offers some self-diagnostics you can run before you start worrying about a pitch deck. RUNTIME 39:40 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:46) "We aim to be the very first check into a founder, as early as possible." (8:01) Real problem versus interesting idea (14:53) Intelligence as learning speed (17:24) Knowing when to course-correct (23:13) "Character is the hardest thing for us to get right." (27:07) What execution looks like when there's no product, customers or revenue (34:58) Customer discovery: " What you want is someone who will commit clearly in the short term." (26:32) How to test how well your founder team is performing LINKS Paige Craig Outlander VC How Learning Velocity Can Make or Break a Startup Are you’re building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit my info page to learn more or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️ Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E116
September 30 · 46 min
What Investors Learn When They Watch You Talk To Customers
Selling your pitch to an investor is one thing. Showing that you understand how to sell your product to customers is another. Amy Cheetham, partner at Costanoa Ventures, sometimes watches founders talk to prospective customers as part of her diligence. Those conversations can reveal how well they understand the problem they’re solving, whether they can absorb feedback and how effectively they communicate with the people they hope will buy what they’re building. In this episode, Amy explains what she looks for in those conversations, why learning to sell matters for founders, and how distribution can become a moat for AI startups. We also discuss what makes a strong early-stage narrative, how founders without an existing VC network can start building investor relationships, and a simple seven-day experiment for testing an idea with prospective customers. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GkTaPQ02NG8 RUNTIME 46:20 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:41) Costanoa "will invest really as early as you can imagine." (5:33) ”It's not just fundraising as a skill. We're understanding how founders sell to customers.” (21:38) If you can't explain it, you can't sell it (29:58) In the application layer, distribution is the moat (34:50) "My founder archetype has always been domain experts." (38:30) Start cultivating relationships with investors before you raise (44:07) Validate your startup's right to exist with this 7-day experiment LINKS Amy Cheetham Costanoa Ventures How to Run Efficient and Effective Early Stage Board Meetings, TechCrunch Ivo Marble Health Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow FBS on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📺 Watch FBS on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E115
August 26 · 48 min
How to Get Through a Tech Layoff Without Losing Yourself
If you work in tech long enough, there’s a good chance you’ll go through a layoff. Either your own, or one that leaves you wondering whether you’re next. Shanon Olsen, COO of Henley Leadership, works with executives and organizations navigating growth, disruption, and change. In this episode, we talk about why layoffs should be understood as a cultural breakdown rather than a one-day event, what happens when founders build companies they aren’t prepared to lead, and why CEOs can delegate just about everything — except culture. I’ve been on both sides of this equation, so I asked Shanon about how to stay committed to your work without making your employer your identity, why it’s important to maintain relationships outside your company, how to assess whether a workplace is recovering after layoffs, and why staying in a job and exploring other possibilities don’t have to be mutually exclusive. RUNTIME 48:52 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:05) When does a startup stop being a startup? (9:37) If you're not ready to let someone go, you shouldn't be the CEO (14:57) Why layoffs are a "cultural breakdown" (19:56) How should the CEO behave after layoffs? (23:50) Building a culture that's resilient enough to weather layoffs (26:58) How to tell an employee WHY you're laying them off (32:38) " Identify what's your purpose outside of your position." (39:13) How to tell if your company is recovering after layoffs (44:23) Should you stay or leave after layoffs? 📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vbunRx4FZIQ LINKS Shanon Olsen Henley Leadership Group Navigating Layoffs: Understanding the Impact on You and Your Team, Henley Leadership Group Who Do We Choose To Be, Margaret Wheatley Dunbar’s Number Johari Window Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E114
August 21 · 38 min
Before You Build in Senior Care, Figure Out Who Pays
America is getting older. Tens of millions of people are caring for parents, grandparents and other family members. The problems are everywhere, and many of them are painful, expensive and still poorly served by technology. That does not mean every care-related startup is a good business, however. Tatyana Zlotsky, CEO of A Place for Mom, joins me to talk about what founders need to understand before building for older adults and the people who care for them. We discuss why "seniors" aren't a single customer segment, how to conduct customer research in a market you don't know, and why founders need to distinguish between the person using a product, the person making the decision and the person actually paying for it. Tatyana also explains why private-pay and insurance-backed businesses require fundamentally different approaches, and shares the story of a founder who spent more than a year changing course after discovering he'd chosen the wrong customer. We also dig into AI. Tatyana explains why starting with what the technology can do is backwards, why proprietary customer data can create a meaningful advantage, and why founders should ask whether they're really building something that general-purpose AI can't already provide. This is a conversation about finding real problems, understanding who you're solving them for, and building businesses around customer needs instead of technology trends. RUNTIME 38:51 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:21) Tatyana Zlotsky’s path to A Place for Mom (4:46) Why senior care remains an underbuilt market (9:20) The real problems caregivers need solved (12:36) Why “seniors” aren’t a single customer segment (16:31) How to do customer research in the care market (20:35) Why “AI for X” isn’t a business strategy (24:02) Private pay vs. insurance: deciding who pays (26:50) What happens when founders choose the wrong business model (28:59) The senior-care product Tatyana wishes someone would build (33:24) What makes a care startup worth taking seriously (36:19) Why families shouldn’t wait for a care crisis LINKS Tatyana Zlotsky A Place For Mom Oura Fitbit Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/
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S2 · E113
August 20 · 36 min
How to Know If Your Startup Idea Is Worth Pursuing
If you have a startup idea, how do you know whether you’re onto something—or just really good at convincing yourself? Pete Martin has spent his career finding out. He’s worked at six cybersecurity startups, most of them in the pre-product, pre-revenue days, with two IPOs along the way. Today, he’s CEO and co-founder of Realm Security. In this episode, we get tactical about finding the right early adopters, running customer discovery that produces actual signal, recognizing patterns in the feedback, and knowing when someone’s interest is strong enough to ask a question that makes a lot of founders uncomfortable: Would you pay for this? And if you’ve got an idea but aren’t ready to quit your day job, Pete lays out a seven-day experiment you can run to start finding out whether there’s really something there. RUNTIME 36:19 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:51) What does Realm do today, and who's buying it? (3:28) Finding the right early adopters (8:01) Where to locate your first potential customers (12:54) Why customer discovery requires volume (18:55) How to write outreach that gets a (positive) response (21:05) When to say no to a potential customer (23:48) Sell the outcome, not the features (28:33) A seven-day experiment to test your startup idea (33:01) When is it time to hire a sales team? LINKS Pete Martin Realm Security Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/
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S2 · E112
August 18 · 43 min
Why Technical Founders Should Stop Answering Questions
Peter Wang is co-founder and Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Anaconda, a company he helped start in 2012 after years of working as a software developer and consultant. In this episode, Peter draws on Anaconda’s early days and the entrepreneurship lessons he shares with scientists and engineers at Cornell to explain what technical people need to learn when they launch a company. We talk about learning to ask better questions instead of rushing to provide answers, recognizing the limits of what you know, and treating yourself as an investor when deciding whether an idea is worth pursuing. Peter also explains his approach to customer discovery, why employees are investors too, and how aspiring founders can practice entrepreneurship by building something — however small — that someone will actually pay for. RUNTIME 43:00 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:53) Finding the Product by Doing the Work (10:19) "I'm just sharing my own field notes on what I had to learn." (14:05) Know the Limits of What You Know (18:18) Climbing the Ladder of Disbelief (23:59) Customer Discovery: Listen, Validate, Explore (29:02) "Your employees are also investors." (31:02) " It's really incredibly important that the vision is compelling for people." (38:39) An Exercise for Entrepreneurship 📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GuysuVrGd8Y LINKS Peter Wang Anaconda Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, Harvey Mackay Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E111
August 13 · 40 min
If It’s Not on Paper, It’s Not Real: Canvas Prime's Rebecca Lynn
Canvas Prime Co-founder and Managing Director Rebecca Lynn has spent 25 years in venture capital, backing companies including LendingClub, Doximity and Casetext and helping founders navigate more than a dozen exits. In this conversation, we get into why taking venture capital puts founders on a path toward liquidity, and why an IPO isn't the only outcome worth building toward. Rebecca explains how founders can develop relationships with potential acquirers years before they're ready to sell, when it makes sense to bring in a banker or strategic advisor, and how Casetext built the relationships that eventually led to its acquisition by Thomson Reuters. We also talk about why founders should get an offer on paper before trying to improve it, how to negotiate without overplaying your hand, what to watch for with earnouts and other deal terms, and how to make sure employees aren't forgotten when a company gets sold. 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5kV4SvM9rBY RUNTIME 40:51 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:17) Creating Strategic Options (8:50) What Taking Venture Capital Really Means (11:42) Don't Build to Sell; Build Strategically (15:18) How Casetext Built Toward an Exit (21:39) Where Acquisition Offers Come From (27:54) "If it's not on paper, it's not real." (33:02) Price Isn't the Only Thing That Matters (35:22) Take Care of Your Employees (37:32) How to Get M&A Ready LINKS Rebecca Lynn, LinkedIn Canvas Prime Thomson Reuters Completes Acquisition of Casetext, Inc. Doximity Lending Club Gabi -------- Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/
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S2 · E110
August 13 · 41 min
Why Technical Founders Hire Marketing Too Late
Head of Marketing for Observe at Snowflake Shruti Bhat has spent her career helping highly technical companies explain why their products matter, find the customers who need them most, and build go-to-market systems that can actually scale. In this episode, she talks about how founders identify their real market, recognize genuine product-market fit, hire their first product marketing and GTM leaders, and earn trust across engineering, product, sales, and marketing. Drawing on three startup exits, including Observe’s acquisition by Snowflake, Shruti explains why demand generation often starts too early, what repeatability looks like in enterprise sales, and why the best GTM leaders know how to unlearn their old playbooks. This is a practical conversation about turning technical innovation into customer conviction. RUNTIME 41:29 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:28) From Engineering to Product Truth (7:10) Finding Observe’s Enterprise Sweet Spot (16:48) When Technical Founders Need To Hire A Product Marketer (24:57) Hiring Your First GTM Leader Depends on More Than Stage (34:27) How GTM Leaders Build (and Lose) Trust With Technical Teams LINKS Shruti Bhat on LinkedIn Snowflake Observe by Snowflake ______ Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/
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S2 · E109
July 31 · 36 min
CVC Is Not Your Exit Strategy or GTM Plan
Tamara Steffens is managing director of Thomson Reuters Ventures, where she invests in early-stage companies building around legal, tax, accounting, and enterprise workflow. Corporate venture capital can look like a shortcut to customers, distribution, and credibility, but Steffens says founders need to understand what has to be true before strategic money can actually help. In this conversation, we get into what happens after Thomson Reuters Ventures joins your cap table, how founders can turn a corporate investor into real product or go-to-market leverage, and why inflated TAM slides can work against you. We also talk about what founders should do before and after the check clears, why some good businesses should avoid venture capital entirely, and why she says every founder should be thinking earlier about exit paths. RUNTIME: 36:14 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:53) An Overview of Thomson Reuters Ventures (3:57) CVC Expectations: When Strategic Capital Can Actually Help (7:09) Why Your TAM Needs to Match the Product You Actually Have (10:04) When Strategic Capital Becomes Product Leverage (13:13) What Founders Should Do Before and After the Check Clears (22:18) How CVC Evaluates Founders When the Market Gets Frothy (29:05) Building the Relationship Before Series A (31:30) Why Exit Paths Matter Earlier Than You Think LINKS Tamara Steffens Thomson Reuters Ventures Thomson Reuters Fund/Build/Scale Founder Narrative Advisory SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/
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S2 · E108
July 23 · 41 min
AI Makes Building Easier. Selling Is Still Hard.
Thanks to AI, you could have an idea for a startup on your way home from work Thursday and finish a rough prototype by Monday morning. That's great news for founders, but it also raises the bar: if everyone can build a convincing demo, what actually separates a durable company from a clever prototype? To explore that question in depth, I interviewed Alex Niehenke a partner at Scale Venture Partners since 2012. He invests in early-stage companies tackling complex industries like insurance, wealth management, construction, and logistics. We discuss why product innovation has to be paired with distribution innovation, how he judges your TAM estimate, how founders create entirely new categories, and what investors are looking for now that building software has never been easier. RUNTIME 41:43 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (02:58) Overview: Scale Venture Partners (04:42) What Makes Slow-Moving Markets Attractive? (06:19) Product Innovation Needs Go-to-Market Innovation (08:58) Why TAM Is Really a Test of Strategic Thinking (12:03) At Least Two-Thirds of My Investments Are Category Creation (15:54) What Founder-Market Fit Means in the AI Era (21:41) What Makes a Vertical AI Startup Fundable? (24:52) What Separates a Nice Demo from a Durable Business? (27:11) Selling Into Hard Markets (33:03) When Regulation Becomes a Competitive Advantage (34:52) Founder-Led Go-to-Market Wins Early (37:01) Why Obsession Still Matters Most LINKS Alex Niehenke Scale Venture Partners Tessa Lau, CEO/Founder, Dusty Robotics Deep Tech Without Stealth: Inside Dusty Robotics’ Origin Story, Fund/Build/Scale Root Insurance Motive Shoe Dog, Phil Knight Building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting. It can also cost you fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative around what they’re building: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E107
July 11 · 35 min
The Most Expensive Money You'll Ever Raise
A lot of founders assume raising venture capital is just part of the process: you have an idea, build a deck, find some investors and start pitching. But what if you don't actually need the money yet? Elia Wallen is the founder and CEO of Engine, a business travel platform valued at $2 billion. He bootstrapped his first company and resisted raising outside capital for Engine until the business was growing faster than he could support on his own. In this episode, we talk about why raising too much money too soon can lead founders astray, how to tell the difference between needing capital and craving validation, why early-stage equity may be the most expensive money you'll ever raise, and how to know when your company is actually ready to start talking to investors. We also get into the risks of letting investors steer a company before product-market fit, why founders should pressure-test how much money they really need, what Elia means by having "conviction with rationale," and why the opportunity should be pulling you forward before you raise. RUNTIME 35:13 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:40) What is Engine? (3:25) Why ignorance can be an advantage (5:38) Are you raising money for validation? (8:58) What constraint teaches founders (10:57) How much money do you actually need? (17:44)When it actually makes sense to raise (21:18) How investors can pull you off course (26:38) Equity is more expensive than you think (30:55) How to know when you're ready to raise LINKS Elia Wallen Engine The Case for Raising Less Money Than You Can, Inc.com Building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting. It can also cost you fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative around what they’re building: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E106
July 6 · 45 min
Why Most Startups Shouldn't Raise Money (Even If They Can)
Most startup fundraising advice focuses on how to get investors interested. Ryan Ziegler sees the process from the other side of the table. As a General Partner at Edison Partners, Ryan evaluates startups that have already survived one of the hardest phases of company building: finding customers willing to pay for what they've built. By the time founders reach him, the question is no longer whether the idea is interesting. It's whether the business is repeatable. In this episode, Ryan explains why most startups shouldn't raise money even if they can, how investors separate durable customer demand from vanity metrics, what actually makes a company ready for Series A, and why founder self-awareness may matter more than a perfect pitch deck. We also discuss customer reference calls, leadership scorecards, founder coachability, and why companies need an operating system before they try to grow. RUNTIME 45:29 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:37) How Edison Partners Finds Bootstrapped Companies Ready to Scale (5:40) Why Most Startups Shouldn't Raise Money (Even If They Can) (11:39) How Venture Capital Can Create False Signals About Product-Market Fit (19:49) What Series A Readiness Actually Looks Like (25:01) The Difference Between Real Customer Demand and Fundraising Theater (27:35) Founder Transparency, Investor Trust, and Long-Term Partnerships (33:32) Why Coachability Beats Founder Ego (35:45) Building an Operating System That Scales Beyond the Founder (38:21) A Practical Series A Readiness Self-Audit LINKS Ryan Ziegler Edison Partners SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw
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S2 · E105
June 14 · 49 min
Money Is the Only Customer Validation That Matters
Conventional wisdom says the hardest part of building a startup is building the product. Shanea Leven says the harder challenge is figuring out what customers will actually pay for. Before co-founding Empromptu.ai, Shanea spent more than 15 years building products at companies including Google, eBay, Docker, and Cloudflare. In this conversation, she explains why sales is every bit as complex as engineering, why customer interviews aren't enough to validate an idea, and why early-stage founders need to spend more time testing demand than perfecting roadmaps. We discuss the case-study approach she uses to find customers, the controversial belief that the only real product validation is money, and what happened when a LinkedIn post generated a 1,000-person waitlist almost overnight. Shanea also shares how she used more than 100 customer calls to shape Empromptu’s direction, why she stopped fundraising when the company took off, and the go-to-market challenges that still keep her up at night. If you're a technical founder trying to figure out whether you're building something people truly want, this episode offers a practical framework for separating genuine demand from wishful thinking. Listen to this episode if you're trying to figure out: why sales validation should happen before you commit to a roadmap how to find your first customers using the case study method what a viral waitlist can teach you about product-market fit how to distinguish customer feedback from customer demand why technical founders need to learn sales earlier than they think which early traction signals are worth trusting — and which aren't how to validate an idea before spending months building it RUNTIME 49:06 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:16) What Is Empromptu.ai, and Who Is it For? (6:25) Sales Is Just as Complicated as Engineering (8:14) The Case Study Method for Finding Early Customers (11:56) Why Al Is Rewriting the Product Playbook (13:37) The Only Real Product Validation Is Money (17:10) The S***ty Purple Website That Predicted Impromptu's Viral Launch (21:38) What 100 Waitlist Calls Taught Shanea About Customer Demand (26:28) "We evolved the platform." (34:57) "Ninety-nine percent of VCs are great at one thing." (36:20) The GTM Problem That Still Keeps Shanea Up at Night (39:02) A Process for Selecting Your First Sales/Marketing Hires (40:59) Why She'd Hire a "Scrappy" Marketer Over a Former Meta Employee "Every Time" (44:05) The Early Traction Signal She No Longer Trusts (45:28) A 30-day Experiment Founders Can Run To Validate Their Idea LINKS Shanea Leven Empromptu.ai Empromptu raises $2M pre-seed to help enterprises build AI apps, 12/9/2025, TechCrunch SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw Thanks for listening! – Walter
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S2 · E104
June 13 · 38 min
What Hospitals Are Actually Buying in the AI Boom
If you're building a startup, there are easier industries to choose than healthcare. Sales cycles are long, regulations are complex, and earning the trust of providers and patients takes years. In this episode, Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate Director Jamie Sundsbak explains how healthtech founders can improve their odds of success. We discuss what Mayo looks for in founding teams, why the program focuses on product development instead of fundraising, how startups use clinical data and physician feedback to refine AI products, and what healthcare systems are actually buying in today's market. Jamie also shares lessons from reviewing hundreds of startup applications, the founding team profiles that stand out, why some companies gain traction while others stall, and what founders should know before building in one of the world's most regulated industries. Listen to this episode if you're trying to figure out: What Mayo Clinic looks for in healthtech founders How to use customer feedback to improve AI products Why some healthcare startups gain traction while others struggle What health systems are actually buying in the AI boom How to navigate the long road from MVP to clinical adoption Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/whrR0IVHEOY RUNTIME 38:35 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:39) What Mayo Clinic Looks for in Early-Stage Healthtech Startups (13:31) How Mayo Uses Clinical Data and Physician Feedback to Improve Products (23:50) The Art of Creating Provider FOMO (25:32) The Ideal Healthtech Founding Team (29:29) Why OpenEvidence Won — and What Hospitals Are Buying Today (36:03) Healthcare Is Hard. Here's Why Founders Keep Choosing It Anyway LINKS Jamie Sundsbak Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate Most U.S. doctors are quietly using this AI tool. Few patients know about it, NBC News, 5/13/2026 SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw Thanks for listening! – Walter
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S2 · E103
June 10 · 46 min
The 10x Rule: Turning a Research Paper into an AI Company
Most startup advice assumes the biggest challenge is finding customers. But what happens when the demand is obvious and the real question is whether the technology can actually work at scale? In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I sit down with Stanford professor and Inception Labs founder and CEO Stefano Ermon to discuss how a breakthrough research paper evolved into a venture-backed AI company serving enterprise customers. Stefano explains why his team believed they needed a 10x advantage in speed, cost, or quality to compete with industry giants, and how they convinced investors to back an idea that was still largely unproven. We explore the realities of building a deep-tech startup, including raising capital before product-market fit, assembling a world-class founding team, learning enterprise sales as a first-time CEO, pricing a new category of technology, and competing with companies like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Along the way, Stefano shares practical advice for technical founders trying to transform research into a business, de-risk ambitious ideas, and create evidence that investors can believe in before the market fully understands what they're building. In this episode: Why startups need a 10x advantage to stand out Turning a research paper into a venture-backed company Raising capital when the biggest risk is technical, not market demand Why Inception Labs built before talking to customers Learning enterprise sales as a first-time founder The challenge of pricing a fundamentally new technology What happened when Google announced its own diffusion models How deep-tech founders can de-risk ideas before fundraising The hiring lesson Stefano wishes he had learned earlier 📺 Watch this episode on YouTube RUNTIME 46:03 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (0:00) From Research Paper to Startup (2:11) Why AI Is So Expensive (4:34) Turning Research into a Company (7:47) The Bet Behind Inception Labs (9:01) Raising Money for an Unproven Idea (12:24) Building the Right Team (14:27) Dividing Founder Roles (16:32) Building Before Customers (20:07) When Customers Started Calling (21:47) Learning to Sell (25:04) Pricing a New Category (26:34) The Wrong First Customers (31:16) Why Startups Can Beat Giants (34:04) The 10x Rule for Startup Differentiation (39:20) Building a Durable AI Company (41:03) How to De-Risk a Deep Tech Startup (42:40) The First 90 Days After Funding (43:54) One Founder Lesson He Learned Too Late LINKS Stefano Ermon Inception Labs What Are Diffusion Models?, Stanford HAI Inception raises $50 million to build diffusion models for code and text, TechCrunch, 11/6/2025 SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw Thanks for listening! – Walter.
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S2 · E102
June 5 · 45 min
Your First Marketing Hire Is Probably Not a CMO
Most technical founders can explain how their product works. Far fewer can clearly explain why a customer should care. In this episode, Cribl CMO Abby Strong shares what she has learned from building go-to-market teams and helping scale one of the fastest-growing companies in data infrastructure. Drawing on her background in IT operations, product, and marketing, Abby explains why founders often struggle with messaging, how to know when you've found product-market fit, and what it takes to build demand before you have a large team or budget. We also discuss category creation, customer discovery, the early signals that the market is pulling your product, and why your first marketing hire is probably not a CMO. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9TnFwRgy2fw RUNTIME 45:19 EPISODE BREAKDOWN [3:56] Why Technical Founders Struggle With Marketing [09:58] When Should You Hire Your First Marketer? [11:29] Marketing Before You Have A Marketing Team [13:46] Why Marketing Takes Longer Than Founders Expect [19:35] Your First Marketing Hire Is Probably Not A CMO [25:23] Turning Features Into Outcomes [27:15] Four Questions Every Founder Must Answer [28:57] How To Understand A Technical Product [32:44] Building Cribl's GTM Engine [36:46] When The Market Starts Pulling [42:09] Build Trust Before You Chase Scale LINKS Abby Strong (LinkedIn) Cribl SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw Thanks for listening! – Walter
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